NAME¶
perf-trace - strace inspired tool
SYNOPSIS¶
perf trace
perf trace record
DESCRIPTION¶
This command will show the events associated with the target,
initially syscalls, but other system events like pagefaults, task lifetime
events, scheduling events, etc.
This is a live mode tool in addition to working with perf.data
files like the other perf tools. Files can be generated using the perf
record command but the session needs to include the raw_syscalls events
(-e raw_syscalls:*). Alternatively, perf trace record can be
used as a shortcut to automatically include the raw_syscalls events when
writing events to a file.
The following options apply to perf trace; options to perf trace
record are found in the perf record man page.
OPTIONS¶
-a, --all-cpus
System-wide collection from all CPUs.
-e, --expr, --event
List of syscalls and other perf events (tracepoints, HW
cache events, etc) to show. Globbing is supported, e.g.: "epoll_*",
"msg", etc. See perf list for a complete list of
events. Prefixing with ! shows all syscalls but the ones specified. You may
need to escape it.
-D msecs, --delay msecs
After starting the program, wait msecs before measuring.
This is useful to filter out the startup phase of the program, which is often
very different.
-o, --output=
Output file name.
-p, --pid=
Record events on existing process ID (comma separated
list).
-t, --tid=
Record events on existing thread ID (comma separated
list).
-u, --uid=
Record events in threads owned by uid. Name or
number.
--filter-pids=
Filter out events for these pids and for trace
itself (comma separated list).
-v, --verbose=
Verbosity level.
--no-inherit
Child tasks do not inherit counters.
-m, --mmap-pages=
Number of mmap data pages (must be a power of two) or
size specification with appended unit character - B/K/M/G. The size is rounded
up to have nearest pages power of two value.
-C, --cpu
Collect samples only on the list of CPUs provided.
Multiple CPUs can be provided as a comma-separated list with no space: 0,1.
Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2. In per-thread mode with inheritance
mode on (default), Events are captured only when the thread executes on the
designated CPUs. Default is to monitor all CPUs.
--duration
Show only events that had a duration greater than N.M
ms.
--sched
Accrue thread runtime and provide a summary at the end of
the session.
-i, --input
Process events from a given perf data file.
-T, --time
Print full timestamp rather time relative to first
sample.
--comm
Show process COMM right beside its ID, on by default,
disable with --no-comm.
-s, --summary
Show only a summary of syscalls by thread with min, max,
and average times (in msec) and relative stddev.
-S, --with-summary
Show all syscalls followed by a summary by thread with
min, max, and average times (in msec) and relative stddev.
--tool_stats
Show tool stats such as number of times
fd→pathname was discovered thru hooking the open syscall return +
vfs_getname or via reading /proc/pid/fd, etc.
-f, --force
Don’t complain, do it.
-F=[all|min|maj], --pf=[all|min|maj]
Trace pagefaults. Optionally, you can specify whether you
want minor, major or all pagefaults. Default value is maj.
--syscalls
Trace system calls. This options is enabled by default,
disable with --no-syscalls.
--call-graph [mode,type,min[,limit],order[,key][,branch]]
Setup and enable call-graph (stack chain/backtrace)
recording. See --call-graph section in perf-record and perf-report man pages
for details. The ones that are most useful in
perf trace are
dwarf and
lbr, where available, try:
perf trace --call-graph
dwarf.
Using this will, for the root user, bump the value of --mmap-pages to 4
times the maximum for non-root users, based on the kernel.perf_event_mlock_kb
sysctl. This is done only if the user doesn't specify a --mmap-pages value.
--kernel-syscall-graph
Show the kernel callchains on the syscall exit
path.
--max-stack
Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain,
anything beyond the specified depth will be ignored. Note that at this point
this is just about the presentation part, i.e. the kernel is still not
limiting, the overhead of callchains needs to be set via the knobs in
--call-graph dwarf.
Implies '--call-graph dwarf' when --call-graph not present on the
command line, on systems where DWARF unwinding was built in.
Default: /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_max_stack when present for
live sessions (without --input/-i), 127 otherwise.
--min-stack
Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain,
anything below the specified depth will be ignored. Disabled by default.
Implies '--call-graph dwarf' when --call-graph not present on the
command line, on systems where DWARF unwinding was built in.
--print-sample
Print the PERF_RECORD_SAMPLE PERF_SAMPLE_ info for the
raw_syscalls:sys_{enter,exit} tracepoints, for debugging.
--proc-map-timeout
When processing pre-existing threads /proc/XXX/mmap, it
may take a long time, because the file may be huge. A time out is needed in
such cases. This option sets the time out limit. The default value is 500
ms.
PAGEFAULTS¶
When tracing pagefaults, the format of the trace is as
follows:
<min|maj>fault [<ip.symbol>+<ip.offset>]
⇒ <addr.dso@addr.offset[1]> (<map type><addr
level>).
•min/maj indicates whether fault event is minor or
major;
•ip.symbol shows symbol for instruction pointer
(the code that generated the fault); if no debug symbols available, perf trace
will print raw IP;
•addr.dso shows DSO for the faulted address;
•map type is either d for non-executable
maps or x for executable maps;
•addr level is either k for kernel dso or
. for user dso.
For symbols resolution you may need to install debugging
symbols.
Please be aware that duration is currently always 0 and
doesn’t reflect actual time it took for fault to be handled!
When --verbose specified, perf trace tries to print all available
information for both IP and fault address in the form of
dso@symbol[2]+offset.
EXAMPLES¶
Trace only major pagefaults:
$ perf trace --no-syscalls -F
Trace syscalls, major and minor pagefaults:
1416.547 ( 0.000 ms): python/20235 majfault [CRYPTO_push_info_+0x0] => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.1.0.0@0x61be0 (x.)
As you can see, there was major pagefault in python process, from
CRYPTO_push_info_ routine which faulted somewhere in libcrypto.so.
SEE ALSO¶
perf_4.16-record(1), perf_4.16-script(1)
NOTES¶
- 1.
- addr.dso@addr.offset
mailto:addr.dso@addr.offset
- 2.
- dso@symbol
mailto:dso@symbol
